FOOTNOTES:
[80] It is somewhat singular that, notwithstanding the early and close connexion of the Boscawen family with this church, which is one of unusual interest—containing an oratory with a stone altar in the tower—though the Boscawen monuments here are numerous, yet there is no earlier example than one to Hugh, who married a lady of the Carminow family, and who died in 1559.
[81] Dr. Borlase mentions the high esteem in which the elder-tree was held by the Cornu-Britons, and states, with reference to the height to which it will reach under favourable circumstances, that Mr. Tonkin was informed that one of these trees, nearly fifty feet high, was blown down in Carhayes Park during a gale, about the year 1720.
[82] According to Hals, the Buryan Boscawens also transplanted their dwelling-places to Tregameer in St. Columb Major, and Trevallock in Creed, or St. Stephen's, and from thence, by marriage with the daughter and heir of Tregothnan, by Lawrence Boscawen, gentleman, attorney-at-law, temp. Henry VII., who died 1567, and lies buried in the north transept of St. Michael Penkivel Church, as is testified by a brass inscription on his gravestone, there lately extant, upon which, on a lead escutcheon, was engraved his paternal coat armour. He it was who built the towers of old Tregothnan House.
[83] He must have been a wealthy man, for Davies Gilbert says that on Hugh Boscawen's daughter Bridget's marriage with Hugh Fortescue he gave her £100,000.
[84] Sub. Basset.
[85] According to Lysons, the Deanery of the royal chapel of St. Burian was a dignity held immediately under the Crown, and in a Cartulary, 20th Edw. I., the incumbent is called Dean of the King's Free Chapel of St. Burian. He used to exercise an independent jurisdiction in all ecclesiastical matters within the parish and its immediate dependencies. The three prebends belonging to the church of St. Burian were Prebenda Parva, Prebenda de Respermel and Prebenda de Tirthney; though there may have possibly been a fourth, called Trethyn, a place in this parish where there was once a chapel. The first-named Prebend was in the gift of the Bishop; the two others were annexed to the Deanery of St. Burian. The 'Deanery' has, however, ceased to be; the three parishes are separated, and there are now simply Rectors of St. Buryan, St. Levan, and St. Sennen. (Cf. a paper on 'The Cornish Chantries' by Mr. H. Michell Whitley, in the Truro Diocesan Kalendar for 1882.)
[86] His medallion portrait on his monument at St. Michael Penkivel, was designed by his mother, and was sculptured by Nollekens.
[87] He is so depicted in his portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds in our National Portrait Gallery. There are numerous engraved portraits of him in the Print Room of the British Museum.
[88] Edgcumbe took home the Admiral's despatches in the Shannon.
[89] Yet the French ships were in many respects better than the English; Professor Montagu Burrows (Captain R.N.) considers that an English 70-gun ship of the line was then not more than equal to a French 52. Many of the vessels were absolutely rotten, and the provisioning was grossly mismanaged. The officers too, it is said, were often found combining prudence with valour in somewhat un-English proportions.
[90] 'Hawke's grandfather (says Professor Burrows), a London merchant, had, like his ancestors for many generations, been settled at Treriven or Treraven (? Raven on the one-inch ordnance map, near the interesting old house of Trebasil), in the parish of St. Cleather, in Cornwall, about half-way between Launceston and Tintagel Head. Cornwall thus has the honour of having produced the two greatest admirals of the period, Hawke and Boscawen.' I did not myself venture to claim Hawke as a Cornishman, inasmuch as his father, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, settled at Bocking in Norfolk.
[91] It is extremely gratifying to record that on that glorious morning scions of distinguished Cornish families were present—a Boscawen and a St. Aubyn—viz., the eldest son of the present Viscount Falmouth, and the second son of the present Sir John St. Aubyn, Bart.
[92] Walpole has pointed out, in his 'Memoirs of the last Ten Years of George II.,' how the reserved and proud Anson, 'who had been round the world, but never in it,' had carried off all the glory of the victory at Cape Finisterre, though Boscawen had done the service. In this view Professor Burrows concurs.
[93] Pondicherry (or Puducheri) as it is called by the natives, seems to have had a somewhat chequered history. It was purchased by the French, from the King of Benjapore, in 1672; it was taken from them by the Dutch in 1693, who considerably enlarged the town and fortifications. At the Treaty of Ryswick it was restored to France; in 1748 it was, as we have seen, unsuccessfully besieged by Boscawen; but in 1761, after a long, tedious blockade, it was captured by Coote. At the Peace of 1763 it was again restored to France; in 1778 it was once more surrendered to England, and finally it was delivered up to France in 1783, to become the capital of the French Settlements in India.
[94] Here, too, Cook, the circumnavigator, won his first laurels.
[95] A still more complete and detailed account, illustrated by a map, will be found in R. Brown's 'History of Cape Breton.'
[96] The year after Boscawen expelled the French from Cape Breton, Wolfe and Saunders drove them out of Canada.
[97] His tactics were to get to windward of his opponents, notwithstanding the advantage that gave their gunnery at first, whilst waiting to leeward for the attack; but the British crews were not given to flinching under fire, and when once Boscawen got within half musket-shot of the enemy he 'hammered away into his antagonists' hulls, and it was soon all over with them.'
[98] The French Admiral's ship, the Ocean, carried 80 guns; besides her, the fleet comprised five ships of 74 guns, three of 64 guns, two of 50 guns, one of 26 guns, and two of 24 guns. Admiral Ekins could never sufficiently admire Admiral Boscawen's action in shifting his flag to the Newark, during the fight with De la Clue, observing that we have had but one example since Boscawen's time of this being done; viz., by Commodore Nelson on 14th February. Ekins gives a capital account of this engagement, by a midshipman who was present.
[99] There is a local tradition that the Admiral caused the tower of this church to be lowered, lest it should serve as a landmark to the enemy!
[100] Luttrell (v. 594) says that (Sept., 1705) John Evelyn, Esq., was married to Mrs. Boscawen, niece to the Lord Treasurer (? Godolphin).